The podcast discusses geothermal energy, including its potential as a renewable power source, heat sources, advantages, and downsides. They also talk about drilling challenges, the cost of geothermal energy, inefficiencies in government-funded research, new approaches to science funding, defensive advantages in military history, and the potential invulnerability of Taiwan to a Chinese invasion.
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Geothermal Energy Basics
Geothermal energy harnesses the Earth's internal heat, which increases with depth.
This heat comes from leftover energy from planetary formation and radioactive decay.
insights INSIGHT
Deep Dry Hot Rock Geothermal
While hydrothermal geothermal energy relies on naturally occurring hot water, deep dry hot rock resources are more abundant.
Deep dry hot rock geothermal can provide consistent baseload power unlike intermittent renewables.
insights INSIGHT
Baseload Power Value
Baseload power, like geothermal, is more valuable than intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
This is due to its reliability and ability to support various energy commitments.
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Jim talks with Samo Burja about the ideas in his recent article "Geothermal Energy Turns Planets Into Power Sources." They discuss the heat beneath the earth's surface, contributors to the heat, technological dependency between fracking & geothermal, the math of electricity, earthquake risk, the limits of current geology, the value of better drilling tech, new approaches to drilling, gyrotrons, plasma torches, whether our civilization actually needs more energy, the local optimum of fossil fuels, bureaucratic incentives in energy, investment of social surplus, scientific welfare, metascience, giving academic tenure to brilliant 25-year-olds, a defense-favoring military epoch, the math of geothermal vs other combinations of energy sources, visions of a clean-energy future, and much more.
Episode Transcript
"Geothermal Energy Turns Planets Into Power Sources," by Samo Burja
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Samo Burja is the founder and President of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that specializes in institutional analysis for clients in North America and Europe. Bismarck uses the foundational sociological research that Samo and his team have conducted over the past decade to deliver unique insights to clients about institutional design and strategy. Samo’s studies focus on the social and material technologies that provide the foundation for healthy human societies, with an eye to engineering and restoring the structures that produce functional institutions. He has authored articles and papers on his findings. His manuscript, Great Founder Theory, is available online. He is also a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation and Senior Research Fellow in Political Science at the Foresight Institute. Samo has spoken about his findings at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Y Combinator’s YC 120 conference, the Reboot American Innovation conference in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. He spends most of his time in California and his native Slovenia.
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